SunJammer Solar Sail canceled just 3 month before launch :(

[AngelLestat]

I was waiting almost 2 years for this mission.

It was scheduled for January 2015 as a second payload in the falcon 9.

The spacecraft was a Solar Sail of 1200 m2 to prove with more precision the solar sail technology and it would work as early warning system against solar storms.

But L’Garde company which built before an Inflatable Antenna Experiment that flew aboard the Space Shuttle, but has no experience whatsoever with procuring and integrating spacecraft. Fail the security and quality testings before the launch.

Nasa notice lack of professionalism which L´Garde drive the project, they also opposed to NASA doing the integrating process.

21 millions were spent in this project.

So it was canceled because it would be hard to find another oportunity to be launched as secondary payload in the require orbit.

http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/42227nasa-nixes-sunjammer-mission-cites-integration-schedule-risk

[jwenting]

makes you wonder if they ever actually built the thing, or just built a mockup that they didn't want anyone outside the company to see because it'd be immediately obvious it would never work...

And then after the inevitable "failure" to deploy properly sue NASA for causing the deployment to fail, of course.

IOW sounds suspiciously like a scam to fleece a lot of money out of investors.

[AngelLestat]

It was built, but they dint pass the tests that any spacecraft should make before launch due to inexperienced in systems integration. So the launch provider can not commit itself to carry the spacecraft to orbit without damaging.